Electronic technologies are increasingly being used for safety purposes. For example, electronic technologies are used to collect and store data that can then be used to promote safety. The collected data may be used by investigators to determine the cause of an unsafe event (e.g., an accident), by law enforcement personnel to investigate possible crimes, and/or by organizations to improve the safety of products, services, and/or events.
As an example, devices known as “black boxes” are typically installed onboard aircraft. A black box device includes a data storage medium onto which data descriptive of the operation of the aircraft (e.g., flight parameters and audio in the aircraft cockpit) is recorded. The black box device continuously records such data onto the data storage medium during operation of the aircraft. When the data storage medium is full, new data is recorded over the oldest data on the data storage medium such that the data storage medium contains the most recent data descriptive of the operation of the aircraft.
The data storage medium is typically housed in an assembly that is designed to protect the data storage medium and the data stored thereon from being damaged during an aircraft crash. Accordingly, after an aircraft crashes, personnel who investigate the crash search for the black box that was onboard the aircraft. If the black box is found, the investigating personnel may extract data descriptive of the operation of the aircraft from the data storage medium for use in determining the cause of the crash. The results of such investigations may then be used by aircraft manufacturers, flight regulators, and/or other entities to improve the safety of aircraft and/or flight regulations.
More recently, black box technologies like those implemented in aircraft have been implemented in automobiles. Accordingly, a black box device onboard an automobile may be retrieved after an automobile crash and used to extract recorded data descriptive of the operation of the automobile immediately before the crash occurred. Personnel investigating the crash, such as law enforcement personnel, automobile manufacturers, and/or automobile insurers may use the extracted data in determining the cause of the automobile crash. The data may also be used by automobile manufacturers, regulators, and/or other entities to improve the safety of automobiles and/or transportation regulations.
However, there remains room for improved electronic data collection technologies and uses of electronic data collection technologies for safety purposes.